VIDEO: DA says Brockton High counselor baited students with candy

Wednesday

Apr 27, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 27, 2011 at 1:29 PM

Brockton High School counselor Galen Stone, 55, was arraigned on charges of criminal harassment and annoying and accosting a member of the opposite sex. Students said he was photographing their "clothed chest area" at lunch with his cell phone, according to the prosecutor. Videos shot in retail stores were also found on his cellphone, a prosecutor said.

Amy Littlefield and Vicki-Ann Downing

The high school girls didn’t know the man who had just tossed candy onto their cafeteria table.

As they reached to pick it up, prosecutors say, the man, Brockton High counselor Galen L. Stone, trained a cell-phone camera on their chests and photographed them.

The girls felt uncomfortable and confronted him, school officials said. He left, and they complained to administrators.

Their actions led to the investigation and eventual arrest of Stone, who was charged Tuesday in Brockton District Court with criminal harassment and accosting or annoying a person of the opposite sex.

Prosecutors say an investigation revealed a trove of photos and videos on Stone’s phone, many focused on women’s chests and taken apparently without their knowledge.

The students “did exactly the right thing” in reporting the incident, Brockton High School Principal Susan Szachowicz said.

Stone, 55 of Needham, was released on $500 bail.

Judge Michael J. Pomarole barred Stone from unsupervised contact with children under 18. His lawyer, Andra J. Hutchins, said that will prevent Stone from attending his daughter’s high school graduation.

“I think that’s out of the picture at this point,” Pomarole said. “He’s to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18. He’d better comply with that provision or he’s subject to having his bail revoked” and being held in jail pending trial.

School officials say Stone worked as a counselor at Brockton High since September 2007 and as a consultant at West Middle School. He was on track to earn $76,000 this year, they said.

He has been on leave since March 29, when the students complained what the prosecutor described in court as “inappropriate pictures of them at lunch.”

They reported that Stone threw candy on a lunch table, then took pictures with his cell phone of “what they believed to be their chest areas, clothed,” as they reached for the candy, prosecutor Amanda Fowle said.

Fowle said two Brockton High officials – Red House Assistant Housemaster Matthew Beals and Yellow House Housemaster Jean Ryan – called Stone to a meeting and asked him if he knew what it was about.

Stone responded: “Yes, I’m sorry. Yes, I do,” according to Fowle.

Fowle said Stone allowed Beals and Ryan to look at his cell phone. They found photos and videos of students in school, along with photos of a teacher Stone worked with, all concentrating on the “clothed chest areas,” she said.

Also on the phone were a “significant number” of homemade videos and downloaded pornographic videos, Fowle said. Some of the homemade videos were of people interacting in classrooms, she said. In all, about 50 videos and photographs were on the phone, she said.

Fowle said a high-tech evidence analysis team used a search warrant to examine the phone and found video files of people who were not aware they were being recorded. The videos, which focused on the clothed “breast area of the females,” were taken in schools and retail stores, Fowle said.

Fowle asked the judge to set bail at $2,500 for Stone, based on the seriousness of the charges.

Hutchins objected when the judge ordered Stone not to have unsupervised contact with children under 18 except his own, saying that would keep him from his second job as a counselor for adolescent boys.

Hutchins said Stone has been living at the home of his elderly parents in Marion, and that his wife and children live in Needham. No one from his family was in court with him, but Stone nodded when the judge asked whether the family is aware of the charges.

Hutchins said Stone has no criminal record.

Stone was arrested by police on Monday night at his parents’ home. He is due to return to court June 30.

Enterprise staff writer Amy Littlefield contributed to this report. Vicki-Ann Downing can be reached at vdowning@enterprisenews.com. Maribeth Conway can be reached at mconway@enterprisenews.com.